Candlewood

by Evelyn Ann Casey

1977. St. Croix River Valley, Minnesota. When Meg joins her Catholic alma mater’s parish staff, she soon finds herself fending off the menacing priest from prayer group. A different kind of challenge looms when salt-of-the-earth Father Andy is assigned to the parish. Their friendship heats up. Meg knows the rules and is loath to add another sin to her family’s litany of taboos. Meanwhile, the priest from prayer group goes unchecked. Meg must confront the boys' club of her Church, find a God she can trust, and reckon with her deepest desires.

349 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 1, 2025

Reviews

[R Oettinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Candlewood takes readers back to the choices faced by young Catholic women in the early 1970s. Meg Joyce is a teacher who, during a strike, takes a job providing pastoral care for hospitalized and elderly members of her Catholic parish. Adrift between relationships and unsure of her future, Meg explores options within the Catholic hierarchy. She experiences the best and the worst of what Catholicism had to offer her: the chauvinism that kept her and other women from real authority or agency, but also the satisfaction of friendship and community and of helping others. When she finds herself falling in love with a priest, Meg - and Father Andy - must come to terms with the expectations society has for them and the loneliness they each experience. They learn their situation is not as rare as they might have thought.

Although the setting is thoroughly steeped in Catholicism, non-Catholic readers will recognize universal questions as the characters struggle with bigotry, addiction, prejudice, discrimination, and the great need to love and be loved. Meg's challenge is to find her own path to happiness and satisfaction, aside from the constraints of her gender and the expectations of her community.

[Anne Tigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a rainy day in 1977 when we meet Meg Joyce, driven into work at a Catholic Church, her desire to teach sidelined by a teacher's strike. From a family familiar with taboos, she says, "My family's not the kind to fall back on." Her self-reliance is hard won at points, but true. Father Andy enters her life with the scent of sandalwood and hair the color of late summer dune grass. As their relationship deepens into love, prayer is a mainstay for Meg, the Church providing signs and symbols anchoring her as challenges grow, and she deeply questions the Church. They each experience seismic shifts in the culture and in the Church, coming together, separating, grappling with boundaries and rules. Love grounds Meg and Andy and they do not betray Love. Even when it is searing, wounding, ecstatic, hopeful. Candlewood gives us flawed lovers navigating the uncertainty of change, straddling tradition and taboos, making decisions that drive them apart, but bring them closer at the same time. Author Evelyn Ann Casey has the subject matter--the era, the Catholic Church, the desire for family and children--well in hand in a story filled with the energy of life, opening and closing like seasons.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this debut novel, Candlewood, by Evelyn Ann Casey. This well-written story is about a young Catholic woman who falls in love with a priest. The feelings are returned, but of course nothing can happen between them that anyone can know about. Meg has to decide if her dream of marriage and family is more important than her forbidden love for a priest.
There are a couple of interesting secondary story involving another priest and another concerning Meg’s brother Eddie.
This story held my interest throughout. I will admit I was a little concerned about reading a book about the Catholic Church, but this is more about Meg’s dilemma and the decisions she has to make. Casey wrote with compassion and empathy, yet with a realistic view of Meg, Father Andy and how the church affects their lives and decisions.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this stunning debut novel by Evelyn Ann Casey, recent college graduate Margaret “Meg” Joyce navigates life in 1970s Minnesota and New York City with the aim of marrying and having children. But Meg finds herself falling in love with Alfonse “Andy” Vogel -- Father Vogel. Fans of Colleen McCullough’s The Thornbirds will appreciate Meg’s heartache as she works alongside the handsome priest in the Catholic church’s “Den of Celibates.” But there are also nods to the TV series Emily in Paris when Meg takes off for the Big Apple and proves herself in the art world. Casey does an outstanding job with Meg’s romantic relationships such that when Meg is with the man she loves, the reader feels that’s exactly where she should be. This coming-of-age tale emotionally grips you, leaving you to wonder what on Earth Meg will do.

[Sarah Gibbard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in rural Minnesota in the 1970s, Candlewood is the bittersweet, deeply human story of a woman, a priest, and the Catholic Church they both love. Narrator Meg’s inner struggles and divided loyalties draw the reader in as the narrative unfolds, pitting her heart against a cherished, flawed institution that has given her so much.